Underground
by taggerung0254
Summary: Ok, Rikku finds a cave and a Something that tries to eat her. The worst part? The Something doesn't like jelly beans! How wretched, not liking jelly beans...
1. AntiJelly Bean Feind

**Ok, sea monkeys! I am having boat loads of trouble with my other story, so I decided to put something else up. It is mostly the drabble that my muse woke me with at 4 AM. When my muse sends me something, I must obey. **

**Anyways, this is from Rikku's POV. No clothing has been changed, and none of the names have been changed to protect anyone. I haven't the foggiest idea as to why Rikku was wandering about on Mushroom Rock Road, so please don't ask me. **

**I don't own FFX-2, but if I did, I would buy everyone in the world a dictionary. **

You'll never believe what happened to me today. There I was, walking down Mushroom Rock Road (try saying that three times fast) to get back onboard the Celsius when the ground started to rumble a little. So, naturally, I stopped to see what was going on. Stupid thing to do, really. If it was a land slide or something, I'd be a goner. Not that stopping didn't make me a goner anyways, but let's get back to the point.

The ground rumbled again, and this time I could see a couple of rocks fall from the side of the cliffs. Being the curious little thing I am, I snuck up close to the cliff face, trying to find the source of the rumbling and the falling rocks. Then the rumbling started again, this time with more determination. There was a crack in the cliff. A growing crack. The more rumbling I heard and felt, the more the crack grew. Curiosity killed the cat, but I still had about five lives left. So I went a bit closer to inspect it. Me and my curiosity.

I heard a scuffle from behind me, and turned to see some of the Youth League members walking towards me. I waved at them to stop. I didn't think they had five lives left like me. Most people only have one. If only I hadn't turned my back to the developing crack on the rock wall.

There was another, stronger rumble and then a loud crash. I felt something slimy and gross brush past my left leg. I looked down just as the slimy-gross thing wrapped around my leg and jerked. Pain seared through my calf and ankle as it tightened and proceeded to pull me to the now small opening in what I had always assumed was solid rock. My mistake. I'll never assume that rock walls are solid again. I mean, I assumed they were solid and now there's a slimy-gross thing pulling me inside a cave and it was trying to take my foot off before I ever reached the inside of it.

There was something big inside. Really big. It was a black color that was blacker than black. That probably doesn't make any sense to anyone, but it was true. The small amount of daylight that filtered into the cave showed the huge, dark body of a Something. I'm going to assume again and say that the slimy-gross thing on my leg belongs to the huge body beyond the entrance.

The Youth League guys tried to grab me, but it was too late. Just as I went in, another slimy-gross thing came shooting out and grabbed one of them. The man shrieked at a volume that only opera singers are supposed to be able to reach. I pulled out one of my daggers and cut the slimy-gross thing that was causing an innocent man to bust a lung from screaming. There was an inhuman howl that echoed throughout the cave. The other slimy-gross thing was retracted and the one attached to me was as well.

Great. Now Iwas inside an unknown cave with a humongous Something for company. It probably wanted to eat me or something. There can't have been much to eat in a sealed off cave. I have some jelly beans in my pouch. I wondered if it would like some in exchange for letting me **not** be dinner. Unlikely, you say? Well I think it's worth a shot. Who doesn't like jelly beans?

"Okay, you want some jelly beans, Something? They're awfully yummy." A gargling roar answered my offer to share my jelly beans. Okay, now I know that there is someone out there that doesn't like jelly beans. Excuse me for trying to get out of a fight that I can't win. Little me doesn't stand much of a chance against big Somethings.

Alright, I needed to put some kind of fight here. Hmm…what dress sphere would be appropriate for fighting a Something? That ninny Shinra could tell me, I bet. Too bad I don't have a Shinra in my pocket. Not that I even had pockets. I had pouches and a utility belt like a super-hero. Okay, I think a Warrior was due for an entrance. At the very least I could get the slimy-gross thing off of my leg. Chop-chop and all that. Alrighty, Warrior here I come! I mean, here I am!

It took me a few seconds to change, but when I was finished, the very first thing I did was to whack that slimy-gross thing off my leg completely. My lovely, shiny sword went through it like a hot knife through butter. Or maybe more like cream cheese. There was a small bit of resistance when I sliced through it. The second thing I did was to peel the remnants off of my leg. I think it took some skin off with it, because it sure as Hell felt like there were suckers attached to my leg. Ugh, I had always wondered what it would feel like for an orange to be peeled, if it were alive and sentient, that is. There was a very wet 'shhhrrrip' sound as it stole some of my skin from my leg. Gods, I could feel the thing twitching! A few more chops should do the trick…no! Get out before it notices you again!

The Something didn't seem to like having the slimy-gross thing chopped off. It wailed and howled like a mad thing. Duh, it was mad. You'd be mad too if someone had just cut off one of your appendages. While the Something was occupied with its severed extremity, I tried to make a run for the entrance. The Something didn't seem to like the idea of my escaping just as much as it didn't like being chopped up by my sword.

It gathered itself behind me, getting ready for an attack. There was a slight tremor as its bulk moved with more speed than I would have expected to intercept me. I felt something that was disgustingly gooey smack me across the back, forcing me to stop running and hit the opposing wall with a resounding 'crack'. Damn, there went a few ribs. I still had my sword, thankfully, so when the Something came at me again, its bulk shaking the ground more violently than before, I parried the blow it had ready for me. I took off a chunk of gooey stuff from the gooey thing that had hit me before. It nearly took my sword away, though.

Now Something was **really** mad at me. It began…I guess 'hopping' is the best word to describe it. Hey, it might be a baby Something and throwing a tantrum because things weren't going its way. Please, oh please don't let there be a mommy or daddy Something in here too.

I moved from where my precious ribs had been cracked against a rather hard rock wall and dove to the ground just as it made another gooey swipe at me. Thankfully, it missed, so I got up and moved again. I wished I could run, but that seemed to jar my battered body a little too much. Something began 'hopping' again, and I heard what disturbingly sounded like rock cracking and breaking. It disturbed me because it came from the floor and not the walls.

"You stupid Something! Stop breaking the floor! You'll get me killed you big meanie!"

Like it would listen to reason. Especially my reason; I had just taken a few chunks out of it. I wouldn't listen to me if I had taken a few chunks out of me. I could understand why it wasn't disposed to listen. Unfortunately, it 'hopped' one too many times and the floor started to cave in.

How in Spira did the Something hop? It seemed to be made up of gooey stuff and not muscles. Flans were gooey, but they oozed around when they traveled, they didn't have any real kind of locomotion to use. I'd have to get Shinra to find out for me. I wasn't about to stay and ask it.

The floor of the cave began to break apart, leaving jagged holes that lead to an abyss. I couldn't hear if anything hit another surface or not. Then again I was too busy trying to get out of the cave and to safety to listen properly. The ground gave way completely and fell away from my feet before I could make a proper leap to the entrance. I could hear the Something howling as it fell. There was another sound then, I heard it loud and clear as I was falling with the slab of rock that had been under my feet. Something else was making noise in here. It took me a minute to realize that it was me screaming at the top of my lungs as I fell alongside the Something into the abyss.

**Well, let me know if you like it. If you do, I may very well continue this one and give "Journey" a break for a while. **

**Hit the little 'GO!' button and make tagg very happy!**


	2. A Gooey Bra Need I Say More?

**Ok sea monkeys! I'm baaaaack! Let's see what Tagg has in store for you today.**

**A great big THANK YOU to all you reviewer type people out there that took the time to read the first chapter and give me feedback. ;) **

**I don't own FFX-2, so leave me and my ramblings alone. **

And we're falling, we're falling…always falling down. I wonder what it would be like to fall up. If you can fall up the stairs, I'm sure that you can fall up somewhere else in the world. Maybe if you fell into the center of the world, you would fall up to the other side. That makes sense, right?

Wouldn't it be neat if I was the first person in Spira to fall up onto the other side? I guess the Something I'm falling with would be the first fiend to do it too. I don't want to share my spotlight with it. It's too…gooey. Maybe if it was a cute chocobo or a cactuar. Not a Something though.

It was still howling its weird howl. I had to stop screaming when I ran out of breath. I had yet to inhale properly. Tiny gasps were all I could get. One reason is that my ribs really hurt from that damn wall that got in my way back in the cave. The other is because of all the wind hitting me as I fell. It knocked the air out of me before I got a chance to get any more in my lungs.

Doesn't that thing ever shut up?! I guess it doesn't breathe or anything, seeing as it's made of goo. Do flans have lungs? I'll have to remember to ask Shinra that too. If I see him again. It's getting on my nerves. Where's a pacifier when you need one? I bet Lulu has one tucked away somewhere that I could use.

Uh oh. It's gone quiet. Did it faint? That can't be a good thing. If a fiend dies of shock, what'll happen to me? I made the mistake of looking down and found that I was directly above the huge Something. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

I heard it go 'SPLAT' below me. Then I went 'SPLAT' too. Only, not on the floor. I landed in the gooey-ness of the Something and _sank into it_, breaking my fall. It was by far the most disgusting thing I have ever experienced. Being sucked inside a Sandworm is really, really gross. This was worse. The goo was slimy inside, and it got in my hair and up my nose and under my bra…uhhhgh. Gross, gross, EW, gross, gross. Get me out of this nasty thing!

I had to _swim_ my way out of it; it was that kind of liquidy-gross. Nothing will get me out of bed in the morning from here on out like the sound of something going 'SPLAT'. I'll bolt out of bed so fast it'll make your head spin. Just make sure that the hot water is going, because I'll want to get clean REALLY bad. Like I wanted to be right that minute.

At first, I thought that it was completely dark. Now I could see the grossness that was adorning my body glistening in some kind of glow. It wasn't light. It was a glow. And guess what? The gods were smiling down on me because there was this big, huge lake right next to me. Thank you! Thank you, whatever deity has giving me this blessing! Now I can be rid of Something slime!

I was in the water before you could say "Hypello". I tore my clothes off and scrubbed them to within an inch or their fabricy lives. That damn slime totally ruined my favorite bra too. If the Something wasn't already jam, (I can't say toast, it's too gooey) I'd kill it. Somehow.

What, you think I'm not capable of it? I'd have found a way! I would have! Really. Now you've gone and insulted me. You little-CRED! ALL MY JELLY BEANS ARE RUINED! That was a new bag too… poopie! This sucks! How am I going to get out of here without jelly beans to fortify me? They are a staple of my diet. Full of sugar and no vitamins what-so-ever.

I dragged my sodden clothes back on and got out of the water. There might be evil fish things down there that like the taste of Something goo. Bleh. Gag me. What other kind of fiends are down here, anyways? It can't be un-inhabited by fiends. They are everywhere in Spira, even in what used to look like rock walls but really turn out to be caves with Somethings in them.

My eyes were getting accustomed to the darkness and the glow was everywhere. It came from some kind of mossy looking stuff hanging on the walls. This cave didn't look right. Didn't look **natural**. It had to be natural, didn't it? No one makes caves just to have a cave. You can't make caves anyways. Can you? If you blow up the rock, it'll be unstable and collapse.

Natural or not, this place gave me the creeps. It was eerily lit, and the air felt…thick. Not like peanut butter thick, but like when you walk through a spider web. Like there were filaments of spider silk all around me and invading my lungs. I felt weighed down by it. I don't know which was worse, the air in this gods forsaken place or being trapped in goo.

I think I'll take the air, thank you.

I looked around in the vain hope of finding an exit from this abysmal place. Abysmal, abyss, get it? No? Well, _I_ thought it was funny. I knew there wouldn't be one. I would be stuck down here for the very-short rest of my life. No one would ever find me. Another Something would come along and suck on my bones. I'd die, and no one would ever know it. I can see my epitaph now:

_In Loving Memory of Rikku_

_Only daughter of Cid, _

_Cousin of High Summoner Yuna_

_Fell down a big, black hole _

_And never came out._

Isn't that nice? So comforting to the grieving.

I was still looking around in vain when I spotted what looked like a ray of hope. There was a door-like portal in the wall. How the Hell does a cave get a door-like **anything**? Caves don't have doors. They have more caves.

Still, it was better than just sitting here waiting to die. So off I went to the 'Door', trudging through countless invisible spider webs as I walked. I **REALLY **hoped that there weren't invisible spiders to go along with these invisible webs…

**Kind of short, but this isn't an epic…yet. MWAHAHAHA! That got your attention, didn't it? I had an inspiration for this fic, and will continue it into what will become a dark, dreary tale of the Underground and what it holds in store for Rikku. **

**Let me know how you like it! I think I messed up some verb tenses, so if you see them let me know, 'k?**

**Thank you bunches! **

**Tagg.**


	3. WTF is turquoise?

**Ok sea monkeys! Here we go again on the Underground Cruise! It's an all expense paid trip into the bowels of Spira. And your host? None other than Rikku, the peppy yet soon to be disturbed young woman who will lead us on our journey. So come along, and bring your juke box money! You'll need it. It's a long trip…**

**I don't own Rikku or FFX-2; I just look like I do. So leave me and Carla alone, thankyouverymuch.**

And we're walking, we're walking…still walking. I thought that fall was long, but this? This was ridiculous. The only light I had came from that weird, mossy stuff on the walls. It revealed a dreary gray tunnel that led into more dreary gray-ness. Even the moss was gray. The glow it gave off was purplish. You'd think that it would make the tunnel and everything else purplish too. But no, it stayed gray. Stubborn place.

**"**Why don't you conform to the laws of Rikku and turn purple? At least I would have something other than gray to look at. Stupid tunnel. Stupid moss. Stupid…stupid…stupid air!"

Yes, I was talking to myself. There was no one else to talk to. Just me and the moss. And an endless tunnel that led to nowhere land. I am sick and tired of this damn tunnel. Why didn't I just turn around, you ask? I'll tell you why. That glowy moss stuff on the walls stopped glowing after I passed it. It was either go on into the dreary stuff, or go back and sit in the dark. I don't do dark. I don't do caves either, but it's too late to say that, isn't it?

More gray tunnel. Don't caves deviate or something? They're not supposed to go in a straight line. They're not supposed to have perfectly smooth tunnels either. Or door like portals. But, how did this get here? Sure, lots of places were destroyed by Sin, but underground? There were never any underground dwellings but Guadosalam. This place had to have been made by humans. I mean, the walls were smooth to the touch. The floor was smooth too.

It was leading me further down as well. Just great. I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I'm going deeper and deeper underground. Did I mention that it was warm? I didn't did I? It was cold by that humongo lake, but in the tunnel it was warm. That made it even weirder. The invisible cobwebs were still there, but I was used to walking through and breathing them.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a noise. It wasn't the scuttle of bugs. It was something moving. Not the gooey noises that had accompanied the Something, but the noises a small thing made when scurrying about. Please, please don't be a rat. Rats are icky.

I jumped when what ever it was came into view from the darkness that was behind me. I saw the gleam of an eye before it scurried out of sight again. There had been a hint of color too. And it wasn't gray or purple. It was almost turquoise. Turquoise? In this world of gray and gloom? Who came up with the name 'turquoise' for a color anyways? It's blue-green. The same amount of syllables. Means the same thing. So why a different name for a color?

I went back to the edge of the moss-glow, to try and peak at it. 'Isn't that a bad idea?' you say? Not really. There was no real way for me to get out. If it was a fiend, then I would go out with a fight. They'd find my bones (if they tried to look, that is) holding a sword or a gun or my knives. I'll even write 'good-bye' on the wall in my own blood. Give them a real thrill.

The creature was creeping forward just as I did, so we almost came nose to nose before we realized it. I gave a small yelp of surprise, and fell quite un-gracefully on my butt. The small thing jumped back into the shadows when I yelped. There I was, sitting on the ground and grumbling to myself, when the absolute cutest little thing came out of hiding and padded softly over to me.

It looked like a fox, only it was that turquoisey color. It had **three**, count them, three, tails. The tails had reddish colored tips, as did the feet. Dew drop eyes stared up at me, so dark that I could see my reflection in them. A tiny, little nose sniffed the air as it inched closer.

"Awww, don't be scared. I'm nice! See?"

I held my hand out, palm up so that it could sniff it. After doing so, it decided that I was acceptable company and rubbed its little head against my hand. How it came to this decision was beyond me. I guess if I had an acute (get it? A-cute?) sense of smell, I could deem people worthy of friendship.

"You're just lonely, aren't you?" It responded by blinking at me and then hopping into my lap for a cuddle. "Yeah, you're lonely. I'm lonely too. You want to walk with me? We don't have much else to do. Just walking and more walking. I can carry you, if you're tired." The fox jumped off of me and began trotting off down the tunnel, not into the dark. "At least you have a good sense of direction, little one."

**Several hours later…**

I was still walking. Only now I had company. The little fox like creature, which I named Damon, was still trotting at my side. It had more energy than it should, seeing as it was so much smaller than me and walking at a faster pace. It kept circling back to me then padding ahead, like it was encouraging me.

My legs felt all flubbery from all the walking and the previous abuse from a certain gooey fiend. All of me felt flubbery. If there were any fiends down here I think they would have bounced off of me instead of hurting me. What a new defense. I wonder if Shinra could make an accessory for flubbery-ness. Mages would have a field day with it. Imagine having all these fiends bouncing off you and just beating the tar out of them with your staff.

Note to self, ask Shinra about: Somethings, how gooey things moved and flubbery accessories. Just gotta remember those three little items. You'd think with my utility belt I'd have a pen and paper, but _noooooooo. _ I have all kinds of items and weapons and stuff. Like my moogle key chain, and I can't leave home without my Platinum Gil Card. What if I have the sudden urge for a shopping spree and only have pocket change? And I need my moogle key chain because my keys are attached. I can't get into my house with all my shopping bags without my keys. I will need what few items I had down here, so those can't go. What if I find another Something? I'll have to take care of myself and my little fox friend at the same time.

What is Spira coming to when **I** have to take care of another living creature? I'm not the motherly type and I have no idea what Damon needs to live. Not much apparently. I mean, if he (I think it's a he) can live down here all by himself then he doesn't need much. Maybe he eats shadows or something. There's nothing else down here but that mossy stuff, and I don't think eating glowing plants is a good thing.

That begs the question, what am I going to eat? I am getting pretty hungry down here. My jelly beans were ruined and like I said before, eating glowing stuff was probably a bad idea. Oh well. I just trudged along and hoped for an end to this gray tunnel that remains gray despite the purple glow from the moss.

Damon gave a small 'yap' and dashed ahead of me at break neck speed. I hadn't heard anything, so I was guessing that we weren't in danger. Then it hit me. A gust of air. It wasn't fresh air, but it was not full of spider silk either. The end was near! YES! Wait…that didn't sound right. Heh heh heh.

I ran after my little fox friend, trying to catch up before something bad happened to him. He was my only friend at the moment, so I didn't want to have anything happen to him. I was running down hill, a very steep down hill, and in danger of falling flat-damn, too late.

**WHOMP**

That was me falling on my face by the way. I was skidding down in an uncontrolled way, head over heels and then side over side…it wasn't very far to the bottom, but the floor was so smooth, it tried to keep my skin in place while the rest of me was going forward and down. Can we say 'friction burns' everyone? A long series of yelps and cries followed me down and did not stop until well after I came to a hault.

Friction burns suck, did you know that? Now I was even more bruised up and covered with red marks that stung like the dickens. I was wobbling to my feet when I noticed how the air had changed. No more spider webs, sure, but this? This was almost claustrophobic. The air was heavy, like a fat chocobo sitting on your shoulders. And it was stale. I could almost taste it it was so stale. A bit like chips that have been left out for a week or so. Blech.

I didn't notice at first how I was not in the tunnel anymore. It was so dark and black. I could feel this place was big, though. Huge. Giagantic you might say. Just really really big. I could hear my movements echoing despite the claustrophobic quality of the air. I got my wobbling feet moving again, only to find that I couldn't see where I was going. There was no more of the mossey stuff to light the way. I wonder if Damon really did eat that junk. Maybe that's why it's so dark in here. Where's a flashlight when you need one?

I tried to walk forward a bit, but I found that there was a bunch of stupid rocks in my way and I tripped and fell **again** onto the hard floor. Damn it! Why does this place have to make me fall so damn much? I didn't do anything to it. It was the Something's fault for breaking the floor, not mine! All I did was fall down. Now I'm being punished for what a fiend did. Just great!

There was a noise from the room I was in. It wasn't from Damon or me either. It was a 'boof'ing sound. You know, that sound you get when you hit someone with a pillow? That's the sound I heard. I heard it and then there was this flare-up of glowy light. I was blinded by it, considering I had been in complete darkness for a while. I don't think it was even that bright. My poor eyes were throbbing with pain from the flash regardless of how strong the light was.

After a while, I found that I could squint my eyes open a little without too much pain. It was kind of hazy, but I could see that there were large boulder thingies in front of me and around me, made up of the same gray stuff as the tunnel was. Only, the boulder thingies weren't boulder shaped. There were planes and shadows that you just don't see in nature.

Ok, so I'm not in a cave. Not a natural one, anyways. But what is a man made cave doing here? People don't live in caves anymore. Maybe some stupid men do, but they're stupid, what can you expect? I bet a man made a cave down here. No self respecting woman would live in a cave. For one thing, they're cold. Okay, so this one isn't, shut up and don't cloud the issue with facts. For another, it's made up of **rocks**. Rocks aren't comfy to sit on or have around. If you fall, you'll break something. I should know. I broke a couple of ribs with the Something thwacking me into a wall. I think I did some more damage with that tumbling routine. My ribs are killing me. So is all of me. I am a mass of bruises and stinging burns. Did I mention that I had little bits of rocks digging into my skin? There were little bits of rocks digging into my skin. I could feel them, but there were so many that I would have no hope of getting them out. I was kind of going numb from the pain so I guess it didn't matter. It was a little tingly feeling. Almost like when your foot goes to sleep, but just before it is too painful to walk on.

Another reason people don't live in caves is because all those scurrying little whatsits that live in them. You just can't get rid of those crawly things. Where there's one, there's a million-jillion of them. I don't do bugs. I can deal with mice and stuff, but not anything with more than four legs. They creep me out.

So, great. I'm in a fake cave, I'm injured and I have a little fox friend that is missing somewhere in this maze of rocky rubble. Where did he go? This was no place for a little fox to be running around alone. This was no place for a little Rikku either.

Too bad I was already here and not somewhere else with my five cat lives still left. I think I'd used up about two of them. Only three left. That's not very many. All I needed to do was get out with one left. And my little fox friend. I wouldn't leave him down here alone. That would just be too aweful. I can't let my little buddy get lost or hurt.

"DAMON! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

Ok, no answer. Never a good sign for that to happen. I hadn't heard anything moving but me, but that didn't rule out a fiend with a taste for little turquoise foxes. Somethings apparently had a taste for Rikkus, so it goes to follow there is a fiend that likes foxes. Stupid fiends. Why did they have to exist anyways? I find midges and stuff more annoying and disturbing than fiends. You can kill fiends. You can't ever get the little midges to go away. They follow you and always have reinforcements for when one goes down. If the midges of the world united, Spira would be done for. No one would be safe.

Worry had set in and I began stumbling around, half blinded, looking for Damon. The boulders were everywhere. I didn't trip again, but the threat was always there. My hands strayed to touch the boulder thingies, and found them smooth, like the tunnel walls and floor. Except for where they had broken apart. They felt ragged and sharp against my hands. Fine grit was being flung into the air from my steps, choking me.

There was almost a path to follow, like on Gagazet where all the columns are. I felt like I was disturbing this place. The farther I walked, the more that feeling grew until I was percolating with it. But I couldn't leave Damon. No matter how **wrong** the air felt in here, I wasn't going to leave him. I'll be damned if wrong-feeling air can keep me from a friend in need!

Then there was this noise. It just came from no where, but it was **everywhere**. All around me there was this groaning sound. Only, it wasn't a groaning from a living thing. Or from a machina. It sounded like the world was, well…crying. It grew louder and louder, filling my ears up and forcing me to the ground. I cowered on the ground, hands over my ears, trying to keep it out but it kept getting louder.

It felt like something was pulling my heart into my stomach. You know the feeling you get when something bad happens? Like when your boyfriend breaks up with you for no apparent reason and you feel like you're sinking into a big, black pit of dispair? That's what it felt like. I could hear it in my head now, so it didn't matter if I covered my ears. I still tried though. I kept them covered. I screamed, trying to drown out those aweful, painful groaning sounds. I screamed and screamed, and cried and cried. Nothing stopped it. How could I hope to stop a noise? I just wanted it to stop.

It stopped.

All of a sudden, it stopped. My ears and heart were still ringing with the dreadful groaning sound. But I could see around me now. The same glow from the mossy stuff was here now too. And it was still a purple glow that made the rocks still look gray. Gray gray gray. I'm never having the color gray anywhere again. Even the ceiling was gray. It was lit up there with the mossy stuff. Exactly in the pattern of the stars in the sky. Only Tiamat should be more to the right and farther down in the 'sky' and the Undine should be lower too.

How come the mossy stuff didn't grow? It was a plant right? So it should grow and get bigger and not still be in the perfect spot. And how did they get it **up** there? That is waaaaay too far away for a ladder and no airship was small enough to fit in here. I mean the place was humungo, but not humungo enough for an airship. So I looked away from the 'sky' and found that not only was there a bunch of boulders and rocks and think dust on the floor, there was **city**.

Or what was left of one. It looked like a blast wave had come through it, knocking down solid walls and tumbling pillars like so many building blocks. The remnants of the buildings were incredible. The sphere of Zanarkand that Stinky Seymour showed us was the only thing I could compare it to. Even in ruins, they were incredible. The hollowed rooms and gaping windows seemed to capture my attention. 'Look at us. Think of what we once were. What wonders have we seen pass? What horrors have we seen as well? Come and ask us…'

Is it bad to think that crumbling walls and windows are talking to you? It is? Damn. Here I was hoping it was normal. Oh well. So this old, decrepit city was talking to me, and I was looking for my little turquoise fox. I didn't see any paw prints. Where could he have gone? I started poking around; trying to find any hidey-holes Damon might have hopping into. So you can imagine just how startled I was to see a shadow pass over me and keep in passing by.

Jumping up revealed something out of a nightmare. There were people down here now. And not just any people. These were **unsent** people. I could see right through them. They were walking and milling about the ruined city like it was still a thriving place. Children were running after their mom's and playing with toys and each other.

None of them seemed to see me. One old lady walked right through me. Uhg. _That_ was an experience I could have done without. Remember those spider webs I had to walk through and breathe? Well it felt like those webs turned into icy filaments and drifted right through me. Cold and creepy at the same time. At least I had been warm before.

I wonder why they don't see me. All of the other unsent people I've met have been interactive. None of them just walked through or by you without noticing you. But these people were going about what had once been their lives without a care for what had happened to destroy this place and them along with it.

Then they stopped. All of them stopped, even the kids. They turned to what looked like the center of cavern. A brilliant light flashed from the center and then that same light came rushing out and away. I felt a wave of hot air before the light hit me. Then the light hit me.

**Damn that was a long chapter! I have to try and cut them down more. Anyways, thank you reviewers! I lurve you with a passion! And Angel, thank you for the word 'boof'. **

**Scroll down and hit the little 'GO!' button! Make Tagg a happy person!** **Let me know if there are any errors, cause I know I missed some. Probably a lot. Anywho, hope you enjoyed it!**


	4. Rolling stones gather no fur

**Alrighty then! Here we are, at long last. A new chapter. I've been a bit slack in my writing, but I've been busy having a life for once. SO.**

**In our last episode, our young heroine was hit by an unknow force that knocked her head over heels. That is supposed to be love, but for this story, being knocked about is a Bad Thing. Mmkay? **

**FFX-2 isnt' mine, though I'd like to think that it was. **

"Uhhhghhhh…_owies…._"

I'm awake again. I wish I wasn't awake again. I want to go back to La La Land and play on puffy pink clouds with Moombas. And eat an entire island made of ice cream. That sounds good. Doesn't it?

No? But why? Don't you like ice cream? Or moombas?

Fine. I'm awake. But that doesn't mean that I am going to move. I'm quite comfy where I am, thanks. Rocks for pillows are comfy when you're in a bind for a sleeping surface. I'm partial to the granite one my head is laying on. The one on my chest I could do with out though.

Wait a minute…rocks aren't furry. Mossy maybe, but not furry. Especially if it was a non-rolling rock. Those tend to get mossy. Or is that lichen? I can never tell the difference. I wonder if they are the same thing. They look a like. They probably taste a like, too. Except for that purple glowing mossy stuff. I bet that doesn't taste like anything but fire-fly butt.

A tiny wet nose made itself know against my cheek. I'm guessing the tiny wet nose belongs to the furry not-a-rock thing on my chest. There's nothing down here alive but me and the fox…DAMON!

I sat up fast, and regretted it. My whole body aches like it had been put through a gauntlet of angry midgets weilding meat hammers. One is still hanging around, apparently, cause my head is throbbing.

"Owie…" I tried to ease the throbbing with a hand on my forhead, but that didn't help out one iota. Un-willingly, I opened my eyes, and I found Damon in front of me, front paws on my thigh and looking up at me with those dew-drop eyes. He didn't look hurt. I sure did though.

I now have the record breaking amount of bruises and injuries ever accumulated on a single human being in the span of…however long I've been down here. I'm sticky all over too. It's REALLY gross to have your arms stick to your stomach because of half dried blood.

I don't' think I would have minded so much if I hadn't found all of my potion vials broken and scattered on the floor. This is just wonderful. I have NO clue where I am, and now I have nothing to make the pain go away. Or at least lessen. Just wonderful.

Damon hopped off of my leg after a minute, and trotted a few paces to my right. There he stopped and looked at me. _That little nothing wants me to follow him when I can't' even sit up straight? What's he on? I want some, whatever it is. He doesn't seem to be any worse for wear. _

It took about five tries for me to get up and stay standing. Even then I couldn't make the world stop spinning and tilting. I experimented and took a baby step forward. Ok, that worked out well. If I fall down, then I won't get up again, I swear. I'll just make sure not to fall down again.

Right. And I'm the Queen of Senobia.

"Damon, wha…" I swallowed and choked on the dust my steps kicked up. Funny how that light didn't bother the dust at all, yet it throws me bodily against a nearby wall. "What was that?"

I could barely recognise my voice. It was harsh and scratchy. Damon didn't respond. All he did was start walking again. I didn't have anything better to do than to follow him. Damon is the only friend I have down here. I'd rather stumble around than be alone in this place.

Nothing was ever easy. Rocks made sure to get in my way and try to trip me up, while a few ruts in the path we were on did the same thing. It's like this place has in in for me or something. The purple glow from the moss was still there, but it was sporadically placed now instead of in neat rows like before. Most of the crevices it grew in were destroyed, so there was no place for it to cling to. I guess it died or something. If it's still alive and in the places they began with, then maybe being moved out of those crevices would kill it.

Meh. It just made it harder to walk. I like to see where I'm going. Although I don't want to know what this place looks like in full light. Its creepy enough as it is in the dark. I think it would be worse in the light for some reason. At least in the semi-darkness, it could pretend to be what it once was.

All of the skeletons of the buildings were whispering to me. Still those whispers. It's maddening. I want to scream and sob at the same time. I could feel the anguish of this place seep into my bones. It makes the cracks in them ache with renewed passion. It would be so easy just to let that anguish take me, make me a part of it. To suck the life force out of me and add it to the little collection of tortured souls trapped here.

There was the tiniest of breezes now. I'm positive all those whispers are a part of that breeze. I wanted to shy away from its touch. It felt…dirty. Oily almost. Tainted. That's the word. Tainted. I bet there are smudges of it against my skin, lurking and waiting for a chance to sink in and attack.

The whispers were coherent now. No longer just a mumbling, it escalated into an insane babbling. '_Come, come with us, come with us, us…take her, her, take…the reaper's waiting…waiting for screams, she must scream…NOOOOO…the screams…delicious they are, they wait for freedom…for your screams…'_ Ye gods…not even the Den of Woe is as bad as this. I'm whimpering now, I know I am. I can't hear it really, but it feels like I'm whimpering.

A shadow moved.

People appeared out of thin air. No pyre-flys. Just snap and there they are.

Every last one of them is oblivious to what's to come. What's to come **again. **

"No…not again…I can't take it again…."

Pathetic, yeah. But I don't give a lupin's right rear pinky claw. All of these people were walking around me, not seeing me, miming life as they knew it. All those shadows moving over me like waves, pulling that horrid babbling wind along with them.

They stopped movin again. They looked towards to center of the broken city again. The flash of light came again, and the wave of hot air came rushing over me. I looked to, but something changed. A kid was looking at **me.** Me. Not the light. Not him impending doom.

I could see his mouth move, like he was talking. I didn't hear what he said, cause there was no sound. I heard it in my head though.

'_Make it stop.' _

And then that light came again.

**Weeeeeeeeeeeeell, what did you think of that? Short I know, but to continue it would make it UBER long, so I cut it off here. Gotta make it so you wonderful reviewer type people keep coming back for more, right? heh. **

**Review please! Thanks a heap!**


	5. Ghost stories

**Ok sea monkeys! Here I am again, and so soon! Are you amazed? I am. I haven't had much time lately. Now I have time. Until Monday. So Sunday is being put to good use. **

**SO, some kid is talking to Rikku, and that damn light is rushing at her again. I wonder what in Spira is going on. Let's delve a little deeper. I hope you don't get claustrophobic…**

**FFX-2 isnt' mine. Never was. Don't sue me, Square Enix!**

I know what you're thinking. That light threw me against something and caused even more trauma to my already battered and bruised body. That I can't get up again cause I hurt so much. And Damon the Turquoise Fox is unharmed whilest I'm turned into mush by a constant grinding against rocks of all shape and sizes.

Well, you guessed wrong.

Remember that kid that tried to talk to me, but talked to me in my head instead? (Heh, I rhymed! Gimme a break, I need to lighted up. Geeze.) He kept on looking at me. Didn't say anything else, just looked at me with sad eyes that made me want to cry more than ever. My point is that he kept on looking at me. Even when that light reached us, he kept on looking.

The light reached us, but it didn't touch us. That kid was doing something to keep it away. I looked away from his eyes a minute to see what was going on. There was some kinda bubble around us. It was bright blue, and looked as though it were glass or crystal or something. Anyways, I could see through it.

I watched all of the people around me gasp simultaneously (bet you didn't think I knew that word, did you?) and get…washed away. That's the only thing I can think of to describe what happened to them. One second they were there, and the next, they were wiped away in streaks from existence. One or two tried to turn and run, but it was useless. I could hear them screaming too. It lasted only a second, but all those people crying out at the same time and cut short after a moment is utterly depressing. Not as bad as that tainted wind, but it was bad enough, you know?

Speaking of that tainted wind, where did it go? I bet that kid is was keeping it away. How, I don't know. But hey, I'm no genius, so that's ok. At least it was gone, if only for a few seconds.

The light was just that, light. Bright, almost white light. I should have been blinded by it, but maybe the blue bubble around me was making that impossible. Again, I'm no genius. It was like a solid thing, which would explain why it threw me bodily around like a rag doll. But it didn't bother the dust on the floor or anywhere else. It bothered the buildings though.

I could see where the light broke them into what they are today. The windows shattered. Doors flung off hinges. Kids toys and trash cans and parts of buildings and moss were flying around before being destroyed or smashed against something. The only things that were made into streaks were living beings. People, dogs and cats, the occasional monkey and birds…all of them were wiped out.

As suddenly as it started, the light stopped. The blue bubble dissolved, and I was unharmed for once on this little trek of mine. All around me was just as it had been before the light came. Except the kid. He blinked once, and started to, well, fade away.

I almost reached out for him, to make him stay. But I couldn't seem to move. I was stuck where I was, unable to do more than breath and live. His eyes faded last. They were so sad…so tired. I wanted to gather him up in my arms and cuddle him until he was happy. But I couldn't do it, and it hurt.

Suddenly I could move again, and I turned around in a circle as fast as my battered body could handle. It was all the same.

Damon was right next to me, looking up with those cute little eyes of his. He blinked and started walking again. Into the city, not away from it. I didn't want to go there. That was where the light came from. Where the wind came from. I didn't want to know what was making it, why it was here or anything. I just wanted to go home. I want to go to the Oasis and braid desert roses into my hair. I want to ride a shoopuf, and bother Paine about her 'non-relationship relationship' with Baralai. I want to cuddle Damon and take him to the Moonflo to see all the pyre-flies.

But he kept on going into the city. Oh, he stopped every now and then, to make sure I was still following him, but he kept going in the same direction. It was really straight forward. The city was in a grid patteren, like it had been designed from beginning to end and nothing added on to make it the least bit un-gridy. There were regular intervals of streets and avenues. What's the difference between a street and an avenue anyway? I see no difference. That's another thing to ask Shinra about if I ever get out of here alive. I really wish I had some paper or something. Oh well.

"Damon, why are we going this way? Isn't there a better way out of this hell hole?"

He turned to look at me again, then went back to walking.

Great. I'm following a turquoise fox into an unknown city with unknow destructive lights and insane babbling winds at my heels. Just great. All I need now is a huge monster to deal with, and the horror story that turned out to be my life will be complete. At least I still have my dress spheres. I can stay a warrior and take less damage than in my usual theif outfit.

I like wearing the Warrior dress sphere. Male enemies tend to stare at my mostly exposed body instead of on the pointy, buisiness end of the outfit. It was

a lot of fun. Maybe I'll get to do it again sometime.

**Ok, this is SUPER long, so I'm breaking it up. Too bad if you don't like it. I've been working on this for hours and hours and have yet to **

**finish this chapter. So I'll end it here and post the rest later on! **

**Review please! It's so wonderful to get reviews. Helps me keep on truckin'! loo...**

**Tagg. **


	6. Nooj in a DRESS!

**Ok Sea Monkeys! Here it is, the long awaited update! I've been working on this for a while, and I'm satisfied with it. I hope you are too! **

**I do NOT own FFX-2, or anything else FF related. All I own are my ideas, which are meager enough, yet are my treasure. **

I felt the wind again. Not a breeze, like last time, but a wind. It was stronger and filthier and I wanted nothing more than to rip it to shreds. It was still spouting nonsense and insanity. It was cold too. Bitingly cold. The closer I got to what used to be the center of the city, the stronger it got. I wonder if it was a machina that made that light or if it was some horrendously big and powerful fiend that did it?

Think about it. There is already a new fiend, called a Something, in an unknown part of Spira's underground. Why not have another Sin or a ridiculously big Something with nasty breath that becomes that tainted wind? It's possible. I just don't want to know the answer. That's all.

The destruction and decay of the city got worse the closer we got to the center. All things considered, we made good time on the way there. What with me all broken and bleeding. There must be quite a blood trail behind me. Moving made those wounds break or rip open again, so there is a constant yet slow fountain of blood in the shape of Rikku. I hope there really aren't any other things down here that like the taste and smell of blood. I'm a goner if there are. Not a whole lot of strength left in me. Not a whole lot of blood either, by the look of things. Or feel. There's not much light here anymore. The lights that were at the start of the city had faded away to nothing here. Only the sporadic bit of moss lit the way for me.

I guess Damon didn't need light and more than he needed food or water. There didn't seem to be any here at all. I guess you could tramp back to that lake. But it's in the dark now, and maybe the Something can regenerate itself and try to eat you. Blech. I'm not in the mood to have a leg chomped on. I don't care if you are. Go right on ahead. I won't stop you from becoming Fiend Feed.

Maybe I'm getting used to the mad wind, because it's died down again. I had been walking after Damon with my head down, both to see where I was going and to keep the wind from my eyes, where it seemed to like to go. A dazed follower of crazy little turquoise foxes, that's me. The people had appeared again. I didn't stop walking. If anything, I went faster. I didn't want to watch them be destroyed. I couldn't do it.

One person, a woman, walked right into me. I felt those cold spider webs again, but then there was some kind of disorientation (that's hard to say after the past day or days I've had) and I was back to being me.

Only I wasn't me. I was someone else. I was the woman that'd walked into me. I was wearing a dress. A dress! I hate dresses. The collar of it was tight, so I tried to move my arm and loosen it up a little, you know? My hand didn't work. I tried it again, but the same thing happened.

Oh, the hand moved when the woman moved it. Just not when I moved it. I'm a passenger in another person's body. What a thing to have happen. It's kinda like when Shuyin possessed me, only there is no murderous drama in the woman.

She did like to look at other people though. Just about everyone here was beautiful. The men dressed well and tastefully and the women, oh the women! They wore all kinds of pretty clothes and jewelry. Not a one of them looked below a middle class citizen. One walked by, and was wearing a beautiful gown that was nothing more than see through fabric draped over and over so that you could **almost **but not quite see through it. The eyes followed her, lingering on her long, graceful neck.

Memories came into my mind. Who said I wanted to remember something from her? I didn't. I know I didn't. BOOO! I remembered that neck, only it was arched back and slightly sweaty while I was…

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I'm stuck in a lesbian's body? I LIKE MEN THANKSVERYMUCH! I don't want to see this.

I had to see it. Ok, yeah, it's kinda erotic, but it's not my thing, ok? I like men. I like to look at a manly, well muscled chest and have manly hands on me. Not women. Sorry for all you freaks out there that want me to become a lesbian. Ain't happening. So nya!

The woman turned around quickly once the rush of heat hit her. I could feel her fear; fell the body I was in pump adrenalin like it was the end of the world. It **was** the end of the world, only she didn't know it. She thought about a bunch of things in a flash. Her husband, (so she's a closet lesbian. Cool. ) her black and white cat that was sitting right this second on the window sill waiting for her to return. She thought of the woman in the almost see-through dress with a longing that bordered on despair. Then the light hit her.

Hit **me.**

The body was there one second, and then I felt it be torn away in a matter of two or three seconds. It was agony. Every piece of me was torn apart, not just away. Every little cell in my body exploded and got washed away. The flesh burned before it got blown away. I can smell the stench of burning meat and hair for about half a second, then it was gone, along with everything else. I felt her try to scream, I felt **me** try to scream. There was no chance to do it for either of us, cause then the light was gone, and I was me again.

Still standing up, unfortunately. I fell right where I was. My legs are officially jelly now. No bones or muscles, just jelly. Or maybe jam, but jam isn't as wobbly as jelly. I was limp, like an over-cooked noodle. I felt Damon on my lap. He was nuzzling me, but I couldn't move. How could I move? I'd just felt my body get destroyed. Felt someone else die. How can I be expected to move?

I cried. I could do that. I don't' think I could've stopped it from happening. I sobbed and wailed like a baby with its first tooth. Falling face first the rest of the way to the ground, I rested my head and cried. I found my hands next to my head, ripping at my hair and clawing my face, trying to get rid of those memories. Trying to tear them away. So that I wouldn't have to see them in my head again.

That's the funny thing about memories. They always creep up and stay with you when you don't want them to be there. Like when you remember what your ex-boyfriend smells like when you're in the middle of a date with another guy. Or the time you showed up to lunch with your underwear on the outside of your pants.

Why can't I forget this? Aren't you supposed to forget traumatic things? I know people that watched Sin kill their parents, but they don't remember them. Why can't I forget the death of that woman? The death of me?

I seriously thought it was me dying there. So what if I know it was another person and that I was just a passenger? I still **felt her die. **She didn't want to die. She tried to cling to life, even while she was in agony, she wanted to live.

My world was shaken. I have **never **been in a position like that. That I was in the throws of death and not wanting to die. I wonder if that is what Nooj'll feel when he finally dies. What a horrible thing to happen.

My world felt like it was shaking from inside my head.

Wait. My world **is** shaking! And screaming and groaning like before. What next? I can't take it. I can't. Not this again. Give me the ghosts. I can deal with ghosts. I can deal with insane winds, just not this again…not again. I was being tossed around like a Macalania Jumping Bean now. I don't want to hear that painful moaning again.

This close to the city center, it was horrifying beyond your imagination. No longer is it just the earth moaning and moving, but there is something else in it now. Something alive. Something that is angry and in pain.

Like what that woman went through, only it was still feeling it.

I stopped bouncing around for some reason. I feebly opened my eyes, and saw Damon in front of me. He was standing like he was ready to attack or pounce on something. A deep, ruby red glow was all around us, like what the kid had done. This wasn't a bubble though. It was just a glow, and it was full of an energy I could feel down to my very core. Red light lit everything, even me.

The red light came from Damon. I'm sure it came from him. There was nothing else to give it off but me, and I have yet to find myself glowing like a walking advertisement for the red light district of Luca.

Once the shaking and groaning and screaming stopped, the red light disappeared. Damon relaxed, sitting down with a gaping yawn. I only heard the yawn, cause he was facing away from me and it was really, really dark.

Damon stood up again and gave a great big shake before turning those dewdrop eyes on me. His head was cocked (Minds OUT of gutters, please!) to the side, like he was asking me what I was doing laying on the stony ground covered in blood and tears and probably a whole bunch of snot and slobber.

"Keep looking at me like that," I said, my voice creaky and hoarse. "And I'll use your tails as tissues."

He apparently thought this was a great big joke, and scrunched up his little nose at me and flicked his tails a couple of times. He was so preciously cute! It's like he's my red-light-emitting-beacon-of-hope in the gloom and doom of this, haunted, cursed city.

My face moved, and I realized that I was smiling. Then I felt something ooze down my face. All of those lovely scratch marks on my face that **just **happen to come in a set of ten and match the shape of my ruined fingernails cracked open, making thick, half congealed blood and new, runny blood stream down my face. It hurt. A lot. Although remembering why I'd gone and clawed my face like that hurt a lot more.

I shuddered at the memory.

"Think happy thoughts…think happy thoughts…"

A shoopuf dancing in a tutu. Cute, fluffy chocobos doing line dances in clogs. Shelindra tied up as a pinata being beaten by kids with microphones. Nooj dressed in drag…

**That** was enough to shake the memory from my head, even for a short time. I can see it now…lounging in an overstuffed chair, eating olives with a toothpick and holding a glass of wine in the other, a cigarette holder in his mouth, the end buring…wearing a pink frock with purple polka-dots and lace trim…oversized high heeled shoes that show toe cleavage…

I don't know which was scarier.

But I'll take the image of Nooj, and keep it close to my heart. Anything is better than remembering how it feels to die, right? Right. Or am I left and just don't know it?

Damon padded up to me, now that I wasn't blubbering like a madwoman with a Hedgehog Pie up her butt. That and I guess that he figured that his tails were safe from the Snot Monster. He licked my nose, just a tiny flick of the tongue. It made me feel better right away. Like when you were little and you cut your finger, and your mom kissed it and that made everything right as rain. It was kind of like that. I knew that I could get up, and shuffle along after Damon on his crazy little trip into Bad Place.

I didn't know what to call it. I guess it had a name once upon a time. I hadn't seen any kind of welcome sign, or even writing, since I'd been in here. What kind of city doesn't have a welcome sign? I'll make one, if I live long enough.

"Welcome to Bad Place!

Home of Creepy Ghosts,

Destructive Lights, and

The Non-Stick Frying Pan!"

Hey, it could be true! No one knows where the non-stick frying pan came from. Or even who invented it. It could have been made here. I'd like to think so, at least. How much would it suck to have your lovely fried eggs stuck to the pan in the morning, and then be destroyed sometime later that day? That is one hell of a bad day, if you ask me. Not that you did ask, or anything, but I told you anyway!

I know I was having a bad day.

**Sooo…how'd you like it? Reviews are welcome, seeing as they make me all happy and more happy. Thanks for reading!**

**tagg**


	7. Die of Cuteness

**Ok Sea Monkeys! Here we go! Another adventure in Underground! We're nearing the end! I know, it's sad, but it happens. Gee, let's see what Rikku and Damon are up to today! **

**I do not own FF X-2 or any characters therein. I just use them. If I owned FF X-2, I'd be rich enough to pay someone else to type this up, cause I have a notebook full of this story and it's a pain to type it all out. **

I **very **reluctantly un-bent myself from the fetal position I'd curled into. It hurt to move. All of me was sore, and bleeding and bruised. I bet all the black and blue marks made for great camouflage. Too bad I can't patent it. I'd make a killing off of it. "Get your fake bruises here! Blend in with the shadows, play invisible pedestrian with your friends!" Red is supposed to turn gray fastest, so I'd better put that in the kit too.

And we're stumbling, we're stumbling…no more walking. Or even a shuffle. Not a hint of a plod. My feet were like concrete blocks, heavy and well, heavy. My sword was heavy too, but there was no way I'd be weaponless in this place. Even if I can't use it against anything, it still makes me feel better to hold it in my hand. A security blanket. With sharp edges and a pointy tip. Watch out kids! You'll poke your eye out with that thing! Not to mention cutting off an appendage or two.

My poor sword. I kept on dragging it along after me. Good thing it doesn't get dull. A fat lot of good an un-sharp sword will do me. At least a sharp one has uses, like hacking at fiends and cutting up veggies for dinner. Although a dull sword could be used as a screwdriver in a pinch…huh. I'll have to remember that. Butter knives make good screwdrivers. And hammers.

'Sigh'

Damon turned around to look at me as I sighed. He cocked (Minds out of gutters, AGAIN! Pervs…) to the side. He turned back to the road he was going down after twitching two of his tails. Damon didn't seem to be bothered by that wretched wind. He didn't even shake his little head while it threatened to topple me over! What kind of creature could NOT feel that wind? I already knew that Damon was special. No, not short bus special, just **special**. It's not every day you see a multi-tailed turquoise fox that can emit red light and make the world stop shaking.

I wished he would stop the wind. I felt numbed by it, inside and out. Only good thing I guess is that as I got more and more numb I felt the wind less. Maybe it was just wearing me down so that I can become part of it, or so that it doesn't have to move to keep up with me. Anyway, it was muffled now. Which is a good thing. I don't want to hear it anymore. I don't want to hear wind ever again. Or feel it. No more trips to Gagazet for Rikku. I wonder if I could stuff my ears with something, so that I don't hear it that well. Don't wonder too far, Rikku, you might get lost…

Yes its lame, but I love that joke. I've heard it a hundred thousand times, and I still laugh at it. All that came out was a brief chuckle, but it was significant. (HA bet you thought I didn't know big words, didn't you?)

Why you ask? I'll tell you.

The wind flinched away from the sound.

Wind doesn't like laughing? Maybe cause it was such a happy sound…the wind isn't a happy thing, so that might just be why. Not that I had the energy to laugh. It was all tied up in shuffling along after Damon. A little twitter every now and then might be in order. Laughter is supposed to keep you healthy, isn't it? Seeing as I was in pretty poor shape, I'd need barrels of and then a few buckets of laughter. Maybe even a few ice cream scoops.

Ice cream…that's what I'd have for my last meal, if I had the chance to **have** a last meal. Chocolate, with caramel sauce, and cherries and whipped cream and some multi-colored sprinkles. No jelly beans though. They don't mix well with anything but Tutti-Frutti. And I don't like Tutti-Frutti, so no jelly beans. Pity.

I bet Damon likes jelly beans. He looks like a future addict to me. I'll give him some, if we ever get out of there. **BIG** if. 'Don't be so pessimistic' you say? I don't see any kind of sliver lining here. No happy ending. Sometimes the hero dies, you know? The only ones you hear about are the ones that escaped. Not too many of them, if you think about it. Most just die in obscurity. A sacrifice to save something or someone. Or they get the heroic deed done, but get caught by the bad guys and get tortured to death.

I'd rather live, if it's all the same to you. I'm no hero. Yunie's a hero. I like living too much to sacrifice myself. Selfish of me, isn't it? I never said I was un-selfish. I got mad at the Something for ruining my jelly beans because I was going to eat them in front of Brother and not let him have any. I don't like to share my goodies.

I felt a furry feeling on my ankle, and it made me jump in surprise. Of course that hurt, but I bit my lip to hold back the tears. Damon had stopped in front of a huge plaza. Just the plaza alone would be bigger than Luca! The remnants of buildings were spectacular. Some of the windows had filigree stone work in them. That kind of craftsmanship is unheard of in stone. Metal, sure. But not stone. Speaking of stone, the paving stones on the floor (the intact ones, anyway) fit perfectly together. I doubt even a sheet of paper would slide into the cracks. They were huge too. At least twice my height. And there was a design on all of them. They almost looked like marble, but it was too smooth. The designs I mean. A bit **too** perfectly perfect. Nature made random swirls and kinks and lines. Not the perfectly laid out design and color of the stones. It was beautiful to look at.

That didn't make it any less weird though.

It took **forever **to get to the center of the plaza. I knew it was the center cause there was a humungous statue on an equally humongous stone pedestal. I had to crane my neck and step back several paces to see the whole thing. Yeah, it's that big. The pedestal was pretty simple. I was kinda surprised, seeing as everything else in the city was all extravagant and stuff. It was also the first place I saw any kind of writing. Not that I could read it.

What? It's not like anyone else in the world could read it! It's not enough that I read, write and speak **two **languages fluently? I have to understand some ancient language that no one has laid eyes on for thousands of years? I feel sorry for your kids, if **that's** an example of your expectations. I hope they run away and join the circus.

It's not like I didn't **want** to understand it. I stared at it, trying to decipher what the symbols meant. I even touched them. Learning by osmosis never worked for me. No matter how much I slept on my school books, I never got anything but the imprint of the cover on my face.

I bet the name of the city was somewhere in there. Maybe even the name of the man on top of the pedestal. I don't really think it's a man though. There's a not-quite-human-ness about him. I felt awed by the statue. The only thing that ever made me feel that way were the fayth. Its kinda creepy, like I just got caught with my hand in the cookie jar and I was going to get in trouble. I don't like it. Not that there was much to like about it. I can't think of anything other than Damon that I liked down here. This gods forsaken place was a total downer.

Damon was sitting down beside my feet, looking up just as I was. He didn't seem to dislike the statue. Then again, I haven't seen him dislike anything. Such a tolerant little thing. And so **cute**. I'm going to die of cuteness if I don't die from blood loss.

He twitched an ear, then set off again. I think I tried to groan in protest, but all I heard was a whimper. He twitched the other ear at me and kept on going. I whimpered again and moved my protesting legs and body after him. If I was a give up kind of person, I'd have dropped my sword right there and fallen down and waited for myself to starve to death. Or for that light to beat me into mush. I'd be a goner either way.

**A bit short, but the rest of it would have been entirely too long to read at once. Better to chop it in half than have you die of reading, right? Lol. Hit the little 'GO!' button and review! **


	8. The Bad Man

**Ok Sea Monkeys! Next chapter is up! Fast huh? Told you I had all of it written out! Hehe. Read up, cause there aren't many chapters after this one! **

**I don't own FF X-2 or anything to do with it other than my ideas. There is a little Babylonian mythology here, but it's not the exact thing because I just wanted it to be different, but yeah. I don't own that either. **

"Huh?"

There was something up ahead. Something that wasn't stone. Something that made a '_whrrrrrrrrr_' sound and had light coming out of it. Whatever it was, it was in front of a huge, immense, BIG wall. The wall was kind of iridescent and swirling. Like water in a lake. That kind of swirling. Anyway, this wall was sparkling with a net of what looked like electricity.

And the electricity was coming from the thing in front of it.

I got closer, and it turned out to be a machine! A machine! Down here, where there was **NOTHING **and **NO ONE** to keep it running. I'd never seen anything like it. And I've seen a lot of machines. It wasn't really that big. Only chest high on me. (Uhg, you guys are sickos! I'm exhausted, dirty and NOT in a good mood. Don't stare at my chest! Geeze Louise…) The same energy, (cause its **not** electricity, electricity doesn't make me shiver,) that was on the wall was coming **from** the machine. (Think Mad Scientist Lab here, kay?) All these wires and metal bits covered the the tops and edges. The sides were for the most part smooth. Except for some weird carved symbols on any flat surface. They gave me the willies. Bad juju there, I'm telling you. Major bad juju. I really, **really **didn't like the machine. It made my skin crawl more than Via Infinito.

I heard a yawn, and I tore my eyes away from the Creepy Machine to look at Damon. It was only for a second, because then, all the ghosts appeared again. All the buildings were whole and perfect and lights were everywhere. The 'stars' on the roof (Do caves have roofs? I always wondered what you called the roof of a cave.) were shining brightly, the constellations unwavering. It looked just like the night sky. Just without clouds. Over all, the creepy-ness of the city was gone. No gloom and doom here. Just a huge, underground city with mossy stuff instead of lamps. Ecologically friendly.

It was just a trifle different from before though. The people were all gathered around the machine, which was silent, and a man was standing beside the soon-to-be-Creepy Machine. You know how sometimes you just get a feeling about people? The gut feeling that tells you whether you can trust the person or not? My gut was saying 'That's a Bad Person!" He looked normal enough. He was young, but his hair was white and long like an old man's. Sure he was hot. But my gut said 'Bad Person! Bad!' and I always listen to my gut so I didn't drool over him like all of the other women.

It was a little weird that the guy didn't notice. The women I mean. Most guys would be preening and flirting, not ignoring them. Getting laid is one of the major tasks men have. Something is definitely wrong with this guy if he doesn't have that as a high priority.

Everyone was talking, making enough noise to drive the fayth nuts. All of them pointing at and talking about the machine and the man next to it. The jabber stopped when the guy looked up at the crowd. His eyes were amazing. Blue, pure blue. Like the blue in your crayon box blue. They would have been beautiful if they weren't so cold. I shivered when those eyes passed over where I stood. It didn't matter that he couldn't see me. I didn't want him looking anywhere near me. I felt like crawling under the covers and hiding. At least that way I wouldn't have to look at him looking at me.

"Gather round, friends!" The man's voice was powerful, commanding. The herd of people got closer, as ordered. No cattle prod needed. I was already right up next to the machine, so I didn't bother to move. I just didn't want to get any closer, to tell the truth. I got a front row seat for this little spectacle. "This machine, this glorious machine, will be your salvation! It will cease your suffering, and stop the coming Darkness."

"Yes, friends, the Darkness, prophesized by Ea, the Avatar of Tiamat, is coming! War will rage, cities will burn into ashes; the dead will walk the earth, their skeletons crushed by the boots of soldiers! From the heavens the Child of Darkness will sail forth, dooming this world into its thousand year penance!"

and the crowd utters a gasp

"Unless…we stop it here and now! The Darkness need not come, friends! You're children's children need not fear its arrival! I can prevent the coming Darkness!"

cue another gasp

"Tiamat, one of the great Creators, tell us through Ea that the Darkness comes! But where is the solution? Is not Tiamat omniscient? Is not Ea the god of wisdom and magic? Where is our path to Salvation? We are given nothing! Tiamat remains silent, and so His Avatar does. Do they not hear our pleas for wisdom, for guidance? Why do they damn us to a fate not of our making, yet give no ray of hope for us to cling to? Are we to await the Darkness, walk to it like lambs to the slaughter?"

chorus of 'why' and 'but!'

"They remain silent, these eternal beings, because they have no care for the world they created! No care for us, who were created in their image! **We **must find our own Salvation! This city will be saved, all of its inhabitants relieved from worry and pain! Let the fools build their cities Outside! We shall be safe here, forever! And my beautiful creation will make this happen!"

The Bad Man caressed the machine before hitting buttons and flipping switches, not stopping to answer the crowd's questions or to acknowledge those who ran. The machine came alive, the symbols glowing with a nasty yellow light.

"There! Our suffering will end here and now! The entrance to the Otherworld will be sealed! No longer will Tiamat control us! The very souls He created will be his tomb! Your deaths shall save the world from the Darkness!"

All of the people who hadn't run away were standing there dumbstruck. The machine '_whrrrrrrrrrr'_ed for several seconds before erupting into light. The blast of hot air came out, and the light rushed forward before anyone could even blink. It engulfed the herd of people, sucking the light back into the machine before engulfing the city. The last human voice heard was the Bad Man cackling. It reminded me of Seymour.

At least I didn't get thrown back by the light this time. I stayed standing up. With Damon right beside me. He was looking at me. I could see him out of the corner of my eye. I was still staring at the Creepy Machine in shock.

'This is the reason the city died? A machine? It had to be more than a machine. No machine could do that…'

"_Here…here…our Mother! Our birth…our …**our birth**…our **death!**…our…"_

"Wha-"

'_Our…death…birth…**beginning**…the end…end of…end of everything…everything! Everything…destroyed! The screams…lovely screams…too long without…long without them…no screams…**screams**…**AHHHHH!**"_

I was screaming with them. This wasn't wind; this was a whole bunch of **people**. All that was left of them, anyways. It turned oily, the wind I mean, swirling around me with icy tendrils ripping at me, trying to gouge out my eyes.

"**NO! NONONONONONO NOOOOOOOO!"**

I grabbed my sword in both hands, and still screaming, I brought it down through that wretched wind and hit the machine with it.

**Soooo…whaddaya think? Interesting no? I think so at least. Hit the 'GO!' button and make tagg a happy person! I like being happy!**


	9. Gippal cares! How sweet!

**Ok, Sea Monkeys! See? I'm just ahead of the game with this story! Almost done! One or two more chapters to type up, and then we're there. So, we had Creepy Machine and Bad Man who made said machine and then the wind and then a sword cut. Let's see what happens! **

**I do not own FF X-2. I'm just borrowing it! I'd be really rich if I owned it. **

And the brings us to right now. Everyone up to speed? Good, cause I'm not going through it again. I don't have the energy. Or the time. What? You want to know what happened after I sliced and diced the Creepy Machine? It's not good. You're rather not know, I'm telling you. You still want to know? Alright, but I warned you!

All that crackling power that was around the machine and the wall pretty much kicked my butt. It was like getting hit with lighting dipped in poison. See? Told you that was mega bad juju! Not only that, but the Creepy Machine decided it would like to explode and throw my pitiful self all the way back to that statue with the not-quit-human man on top.

That's about it. Here I am, leaning against the pedestal in a pool of my own blood. I got hit with a bunch of shrapnel. I'm not enjoying the moment, I can tell you. I have my eyes closed too, cause it's too much trouble to keep them open and focused on anything. Not that there was anything to see. It was all dark without that light from the energy. Oh well, I guess my epitaph really will be what I said earlier, cause this sure is a dark, deep hole. Meh. It's that damn machine's fault. Putting such a big piece of -

"**RIKKU!**"

"Huh?"

It took all of my strength to open my eyes and look up. There was a light coming down from above me, along with a buzzing sound of a search machina. It had to be a search machina…there wasn't anything alive down here to buzz around my head…I hope Damon got away…I'll be so sad if he got hurt…

"**RIKKU! RIKKU!**"

"Gi-" I had to stop and hack and cough, cause my voice was not going to cooperate with me without a fight. The whole hacking thing hurt more than you realize. Lots of internal injuries here. All the facial movements made my face start bleeding **again**. "Gippal?"

"She's awake! RIKKU! Hang on; I'm coming down to get you!"

"Gi…Gippal…how'd you find…me?"

"You left a trail an idiot could follow through all that dust. You scared the shit out of me when I spotted all that blood. Just hold on, I'll be there soon."

"No."

"What? Ri, you're not thinking right!"

"No…This place…it's Bad, Gippal…Bad…"

"I don't care if its capital 'b' bad! I'm getting you out of there!"

"Don't…bother…I won't…make it…"

"Stop it, Ri! Just hold on a bit."

"Ha…Ha...don't make…me …laugh…it…hurts…"

I pulled my hand away from my stomach, making it make a 'sluuuuup' sound cause of all the blood. The blood on the floor was from a wound on my stomach. Or in it, I should say. There was a piece of metal longer than my hand sticking out of my lovely toned stomach. Lodged somewhere between my organs was more of it. No idea how much, but it's enough.

I looked into the camera and wondered just what Gippal was thinking. I know I look bad. I can hear gasps of horror and someone barfing every meal from the last week. I'm dirty, bruised up, scratched up and cut up, long gouges on my face and sitting in a pool of my own blood. Not a pretty picture. I cant' imagine what my expression is. Probably bad.

"Just…destroy the…entrance…and leave…"

"Ri…" Was that a sob I heard in Gippal's voice? Didn't know he cared that much. "Ri…I'm not leaving you down there…even if…"

"Stay out…and…leave me…alone…"

"No! I-"

"Do you…want…to watch me…die…that bad?"

"No Ri! You won't die! Just wait!"

"It's…alright…it doesn't…even…hurt…any……more…"

My eyes blurred again, and this time I couldn't stop it. I don't hurt anymore…it feels so good…I'm so sorry Gippal…we never did get to finish that did we? Maybe…I'll get to…see…Mom again…

**Yeah. Sad huh? Rikku dying down there…alone…sniff Hit the 'GO!' button and maybe it will be remedied! Thanks heaps! **

**tagg**


	10. Captain Jelly Bean to the Rescue! Or not

**It's the Underground Show! With your host, Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiku! Yes, I did some work on this chapter and there will be another one added. Maybe two more. I don't know. We'll see where this goes, because I am unhappy with the way the last one ended, even with the bit of fluff. **

**I don't own FFX-2, but I do own cookies, and bananas…if only you could juice a banana…**

Somebody was shaking me. And saying my name. I wanted to finish dreaming. All these people were thanking me for something. Like I'd done something important. But they kept on shaking me. Can't they see I'm trying to sleep here?

"Rikku."

"Huhhh…"

"Rikku!"

"Gippal…goway…sleepy…"

Wait. Gippal? How is Gippal shaking me awake when I died underground? Once more with the shaking, and this time I woke up. So fast, in fact, that my head connected with Gippal's chin. Not really hard, but enough of a jolt to make him flinch and rub his chin.

He looked so tired. Bags under his good eye, worry lines on his face and dust all over him. I can't tell you how happy it made me to see him. Not like he is now, just to see him. He looked a little scared too. Weird. Gippal doesn't get scared.

So I did the only thing I could do: I glomped him.

We fell off the bed (don't ask me where a bed came from cause I have no idea) and I landed on top of him, making him make a funny surprised noise. I was waiting for the string of complaints, but they didn't come. All Gippal did was hug me. And I didn't want him to let go. If he did, I might really wake up back at that statue in a pool of blood. I don't want that.

"I'll take this, if this is a dream…"

"You're not dreaming, Ri."

Not dreaming? Then, I'm not really stuck back in that horrible dead city with all kinds of cuts and wounds and bloody mess? I started crying. Not, you know, sobbing crying, just tears. And a hiccup or two. Didn't last too long. Just a minute or two of it. I was at the sniffling stage when I realized something.

I didn't hurt.

Except for where the hilt of Gippal's gun was digging into my side. (Mentally smacks myself on the head) Why do I say that stuff around you people? You always take it the wrong way. Meh. I got up and ran over to a huge mirror on the wall. My arms and legs were fine. I looked just to be sure. Not a scratch or bruise on me. No rocks embedded in my skin, no big chunck of machine in my stomach…I was all better! You'd think something was wrong with the expression I saw on Gippal's face on the mirror. It was really weird.

I was still staring at the lack of wounds when something white and soft wrapped itself around me. I jumped a bit and turned to see Gippal draping a sheet from the bed around me.

"What are you doing?"

"Ri, as much as I enjoy you running around naked, now's not the time."

"Huh?" I then realized that I was indeed naked. As a jay bird. I happen to have a lovely birthday suit. But I still blushed.

"I'll take that sheet off you later though, seeing as you like running around naked in front of me."

I'm sure I was beet red now. So I turned away in a huff. And saw the door opening and Damon padding in, followed by some unfamiliar feet. Damon was alive! I had been worried he'd been caught by some of the flying metal bits. He's alive!

"DAMON!"

My little turquoise fox made a running jump into my arms. The sheet got in the way a little, but I was too happy to see him to care. I was hugging and twirling him around when the owner of the unfamiliar feet walked in. He was wearing something strangely familiar in style to my own outfit at the moment, only his was a toga kind of thing. He was barefoot too. (Don't ask me why I liked him for that, but I did.) His face was like a wise old man's, just without the multitude of wrinkles. Long beard and hair, both white, completed the ensemble.

"I see you are awake now. Good."

His voice wasn't old at all. It was rich and velvety. I bet he told great stories.

"I have been told I am a great spinner of yarns. And I am indeed old."

"WHAT! You hear what I'm thinking!" Just a bit un-nerved here.

"Most things. Usually only what thoughts and feelings are strong enough to be projected."

Damon rubbed my cheek with his head reassuringly. This guy knows what I think, huh? I thought of him in an opera dress, complete with horned helmet and bounteous cleavage.

He smiled.

"While I like the helmet, the dress I will do without. Riah would have found that costume most amusing to wear though."

"Who's Riah?" Gippal asked before I could. I glared at him while he gave Damon a scratch behind the ears.

"The soul who became Valefor. Always a jokester, that one."

"Huh. Gippal, how do you know Damon?"

"That little guy led me here. And Ea brought me to your room here. Where ever here is."

"Carbunkle was the only one of us not caught in the trap laid out by Saphus. He'd been terribly lonely until you came along, Rikku."

I frowned at the Toga Man.

"Then who are you?"

"Ea. And your friend."

"Ea? That Avatar the Bad Man was talking about?"

"The same."

I frowned again.

"You don't look like a messenger from the gods…"

"I was an herbalist and healer in my village when Tiamat called me to his aid. They are not gods, per say, only ancient, powerful beings. It was Tiamat who made it possible for the fayth to become the fayth."

"Hate to interrupt, but there are a lot of people probably pulling out their hair right now cause we're missing. I don't fancy getting hairballs thrown at me when we get back."

"Gippal you are so rude!"

"Time here runs differently than in your world. You haven't been missing for long since coming here."

"See? If I wasn't holding Damon I'd hit you! Heavens forbid you learn something, Gippal." I stuck my tongue out at him before turning back to Ea. "Who was the Bad Man?"

"Saphus. A former priest who became demented and twisted. It was not entirely his fault. An illness had spread through the city, one that caused damage to the mind and the body if it was not cured in time. He refused to take the cure, saying that his pious faith would hold him safe." Ea sighed, a sad sigh too, like he really was sorry it happened that way. "Fool. Faith alone will not hold one safe. He brought about his own fate. He caught that wretched illness, and it was a terrible case. Even in the throws of fever he refused treatment. He survived, barely."

"He was never the same, after that. His mind was no longer whole, and the parts that were left were twisted by his newly found hatred of us. He was whole enough for others to think him perfectly well, if changed. That is understandable, a traumatic experience changes a person. Saphus had changed, but not for the better. He now thought of us as enemies, betrayers. He believed that he should be saved, that Tiamat would listen to him when the prayers and wails of the dying did not reach him."

"You see, Saphus was a selfish man. For all that he became a priest, he always set himself first. A son of the richest man in the city, he had always been put first. The cries of children in pain or mother's over the death of a child did not stir his heart. A man such as that should never have been made a priest."

"Well, if you guys are so powerful, why didn't you just stop him?"

"Two reasons. Tiamat had gone into a deep slumber. He grew tired of the human voices always begging for some miracle or another. Again, he is not a god. Very little could wake him at any given time. The second reason is that for all I am gifted by Tiamat with power, I am human. With human abilities. I am not omniscient. Nor do I hold the right to end a life, which is the only way that Saphus could have been stopped. I am a healer, not a butcher."

"By the time I had gotten wind of Saphus' plan, it was nearly too late. I woke Tiamat, but not before that abominable machine was started. He managed to shield this place and those of us within it, but at great cost. He was trapped, forever in agony, by Saphus' device." A little tear ran down his cheek.

"How come Damon didn't get caught then? He's just a little fox, even if he can stop the world from shaking." I looked into Damon's dewdrop eyes, wondering if he could hear what I was thinking too.

"Carbunkle is a law unto himself. There is nothing that can trap or harm him by rights of what he is." He smiled at us now. Not a condescending one, but an amused one. "He is a Guardian. Not of Summoners, but of life. He can and will protect what he can, when he can. Just as he protected you from the anger of Tiamat. That red light you saw, is his power. It is never ending, but there is a reason he is a fox. It reminds him that not everything or everyone in the world can be saved."

My Damon was some big, powerful being? Damon? I know he's special and everything, and he helped me and saved me not only from boredom but from that shaking. I should have known it, cause of the name Ea used. Carbunkle was the name of a constellation. It was in the shape of a man holding a shield against the Dark Hound Cerberus. How utterly cool to have your favorite myths come to life.

"You sure are full of surprises, Damon."

"Indeed he is."

I looked up at him, and then at Gippal's tired face, and suddenly I just wanted to go home.

"Come. I will take you to the surface. After that, clear out the people near the cave entrance. The city and the cave itself will be destroyed once you are safely gone from here." I thought about walking all that way back, without shoes on. It didn't make me happy. "This is a much faster way than you came by."

"Follow me, young ones." We followed. I sure as heck didn't want to stay. I like being in good, sunny-skied Spira. Not this place. I was still cuddling Damon, and since he didn't seem to want down, I kept on holding and cuddling him. It wasn't a far walk, and once we were outside, there was soft grass and flowers to walk on. No paving stones or cement. At least the flowers didn't get crushed under our feet. Gippal's boots are enough to flatten any vegitation. Including Cactuars. Back when they were enemies, of course.

We stopped at a big stone. That's all it was. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except that it was floating above the ground. That's all. It looked ordinary enough to me. Ea stepped on it, and motioned us to as well. It was a tight fit for all three of us to stand on it. Hey, snuggling next to Gippal is a GOOD thing. Especially at night, cause he's really warm.

What? Everyone thinks we're a couple, so why not take advantage of the situation? It's COLD at night in the deset. Like, snow cold, if there had been any rain. It's not like Gippal's such a horn dog that he can't control himself. I'm pretty sure he WANTS to misbehave, he just doesn't for some reason.

The rock started to glow, and then, the world was zipping by at super-light speed. It was only for a few seconds. We stopped without any kind of jolt or bucking from the rock.

"Here we are." 'Here' turned out to be a big patch of grass. "Stand in the center, please." Once we got there, he raised his hand, and voila, there was a light on the ground and a hum in the air.

I left that place a lot better than I came, that's for sure. Can we say one giant glyph teleporter? We can? Good people! You're so smart! Here's a treat! (Throws treat) Remember to chew it before swallowing! Hehe. Anywho, that glyph was HUGE. I bet the whole gang of Yunie's Guardians could fit on it with ease. Ea just lifted a hand, and it lit up and then everything went all wavy for a little while and then we were…at a cave entrance? Sure there was an opening to the sun-lit world above, but no cave had hand rails carved into vines and flowers, or pillars with the same flowers climbing all over them, and certainly not any regular steps. No rubble or pits marked these steps.

"This entrance is protected by magic. No one will find it again once you are gone."

"Hmmm. Damon? I guess you'll be staying here with them, huh? I'll miss you…" Damon licked my ear, but made no move to jump down.

"He wishes to go with you. You'll hurt his feelings if you ask him to stay."

"Really? You wanna stay with me and Gippal?" Damon blinked at me, as if to say 'yes'. "WOO! You're going to have so much fun!"

I think Ea and Gippal thought that I wasn't listening, because they were talking to each other about me.

"Is she always so…enthusiastic?"

"Yup. Always. Even when she was little. It's one of her more endearing qualities."

"She will make an excellent mother. Do say hello to your children for me when they are born."

"…what did you just…"

"Rikku." I turned, blushing a bit cause he was implying something that would be just great if it turned out true. Oh please. Like you never fantasized about marrying your childhood love, who also turned out to be your Always Love. Its kinda cool though. We'd see if it really happened. I just wanted to be in sunlight again. "Take care. And you, Gippal. Farewell."

Ea then disappeared before we could answer, and we shared a look, and shrugged, and then walked up the stone steps to the opening. I stopped for a minute, staring outside.

"Gippal?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't step on my sheet when you walk, please."

"Damn, you found out my plan!"

"You want all of Spira seeing me naked, do you?" I said, quickly turning to face him.

"If you think" An arm snaked around my waist. "That I'd let anyone but me see you naked, you've got another thing coming." I smiled. "But I have every intention of taking that sheet off you, Ri." I smiled more.

"We'll see about that mister. You have to get me alone first."

"Not a problem. This road is riddled with caves. I'm sure we can squeeze into one. And if I remember correctly, you are able to squeeze into tight spaces easily."

"You're the one who threw a bucket of Malboro slime on my sleeping bag! It was take yours and let you freeze to death, or share it. I'm not a cold hearted woman. I shared. And you liked it, so no complaining."

"Oh I liked it."

"Uh huh."

"You squirmed too much."

"Uh huh."

"And you drooled on your pillow."

"Uh hu-! I DID NOT!"

"You also wouldn't let go of me in the morning."

"You were warm! And I was comfy and you sure didn't try too hard to get up."

"I'd say something, but I won't do it, to save your fox's ears from burning."

"What? Oh man! You are so perverted. Are there any thoughts in your head that don't revolve around sex?"

"Occassionally."

"Like when?"

"Like, when you fell down that hole. And when I found you by that statue, covered in blood. And when you disappeared from the machine's sensors…don't do that to me again, Ri. I think I lost a dozen years of my life cause of you."

Guilt trip, party of one! You're train is leaving! Yeah. I deserved that I guess. I could have just waited by that lake. With the jelly remains of the Something.

"Gippal…I didn't mean to…"

"I know."

"If I ever want to go into a cave again, never let me near another bag of jelly beans."

"HA! Sure, sure."

"One more thing?"

"If it involves you getting naked again, I'm all ears."

"Later."

"I'll hold you to that, you know."

"Yeah. But promise me something?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't leave me alone, kay?"

"Promise."

So we walked out. No more underground city for Rikku! No more ghosts or wind or mossy stuff or purple light! Just fresh air and sunshine and Gippal. And I had a new friend with me too. The trip underground wasn't a total waste after all.

**And that's then end to the former ending chapter that is no longer the ending.  **


	11. Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble

**Ahem. This is a NEW chapter, which will lead up to the end of the story. I like it. Nice bits of fluff, and bubbles! Hehe. It doesn't take a lot to make me happy, does it? Lol**

**Check out the previous chapter! I fixed it up a bit, added a few things. **

**I don't own FFX-2, just my ideas. Enjoy them at your own risk! lol **

"Gippal?" I had to be careful walking back to where I made my entrance underground. Bare feet and rocky ground don't mix well. Damon trotted at my side, happily keeping pace with me and 'yip'ing at things that moved.

"Yeah?"

"Who was with you when you found me at that statue?"

"..."

"Gippal..."

"Everyone. We had our hands full keeping Yuna from going in after you. I stepped out while they were still dealing with her. You'll be happy to know that Paine was crying."

"You aren't making me feel better..."

"It'll be alright, Ri."

"I hope so."

Gippal was walking ahead of me, keeping an eye out for fiends. Not just the monster kind, either. Some fiend might try to take my sheet away. It was smart of him to walk first, really. I'm naked and un-armed, while he has on clothes and many guns and knives and things.

We went around a bend, and there was the cracked rock wall that led to the cave with the big hole in the ground that I fell through. I didn't want to go near it. Besides, I'm barefoot. Getting inside it would require walking over pointy rocky ground, and I've had enough rocks in my flesh to last a life time. I'll stay right here, thanks so much.

One of the sentries spotted us and yelled out, making everyone inside a little tent run out. Gippal shouted something that sent someone running and then made everyone pull down the tent and secure the equiptment. Yuna, meanwhile, was running at me. She was crying, and angry, and she was shaking me when she reached me. Asking me what happened. She kept on doing it until I just sunk to the ground and started bawling. It was too much like the shaking in that city. All the memories I was hiding about that place came back and hit me and I just cried. Yunie sank with me, shaking me even more. I guess she didn't notice I was sobbing enough for five people.

Gippal came to my rescue. He quite meanly and not at all gently pulled Yunie's hands off me and practically threw her back a few paces. Everyone just stopped, cept me, I'm too busy crying. Damon was trying to comfort me, and I threw my arms around him and sobbed into his fur.

Gippal said something in a not nice way and then I felt him pick me up, Damon and all. Damon kept licking my ear, trying to help me. I just squeezed him more.

I think I stopped crying near the entrance to D'jose, cause that's the next time I had any real thoughts. Before I knew it, I was once again being carried by the one and only Gippal to some inner corner of the temple. I heard a door shut, and I found a bed under me. I also found a glass of water and a wet wash cloth in front of me, with Gippal holding them. I wanted that cloth first, but my arms were full of turquoise fox.

"Oh, no! Damon, look at your fur!" He just lifted his head and rubbed my cheek before jumping down. He's such a sweetie. I grabbed that cloth, and found it wet and cold. Just what I needed for a red, hot, and splotchy face. Being red, hot, and splotchy faced isn't fun. Especially when the guy who's in front of you is someone you don't want to see you red, hot and splotchy faced.

You have to come out of hiding sometime. I wanted to stay hidden. Oh well, I'm thirsty and that glass of water he's holding is what I want. So, I put on a brave face and exchanged the cloth for the glass. I didn't gulp it all down at once. I knew better. I'd make myself sick if I did that. I don't want that, so we'll stick to sipping it.

"Feel better now?" I nodded at him, still looking at my glass and not at him. "Good." He got up, and walked out the door. I felt like crying again. I thought he said he wasn't going to leave me alone. Right before tears started to well up, he came back. "Miss me?" I think he meant it as a joke, cause he was only gone for like three minutes, but I really did miss him, and I said as much. "Good thing, cause I brought you a present. Here."

Gippal usually tossed things to me. I don't know why. It kept things fun, I guess, with random flying objects zooming around all the time. This time, he handed me something. It was a bottle. A bottle of my favorite bubble bath in the whole wide world! It smells like vanilla, and almost good enough to eat. I'm happy to note that it was a new bottle, too. All for little me.

"Go on. Bathroom's right in there." He nodded with his head at another door, near the bed.

"You'd better have something other than a shower in there, else I'm gunna drown you with this stuff, Gippal."

"There's a tub as big as a pond in there."

"YAY!" I ran to the bathroom, and saw that the tub was indeed the size of a pond. A small pond, but a pond none the less. It would take forever to fill with water though. I frowned at that, then decided to get a shower while the tub filled. What? I don't want to soak in dirty water. It ruins the whole luxurious-relaxing thing. So I turned on the water for the tub and poured about half the bottle of bubble bath in. I like lots of bubbles. If there are enough bubbles, you can make a relief map of Spira in them. Then, I turned on the shower and tossed the sheet away near the door.

Only, it kept moving, and then there were Damon's tails poking out from under a corner of the sheet. He was lost under the sheet! Oh, its so cute! I wish you could see it! He keeps biting at it and hopping...oh so cute!

"I'm sorry, Damon! I didn't know you followed me in here!" I said, pulling the sheet off to reveal a blinking Damon. His fur was all messed up, both from me crying on it and from being under the sheet. "That's better, right?" I bundled the sheet up and tossed it outside the door. I saw that Gippal was no longer in the bedroom, and that the door was shut. Since when did he get considerate? Oh well, at least he isn't being a peeping Tom. Why can't it be a peeping Larry? Or Lazzu? Or anything? Why is it always Tom who does the peeping? Maybe cause it's easy to say? That must be it. I'll add it to my List of Things to Ask Shinra. Its pretty long, now.

By the time I was done with the shower, the tub was ready. The plumbing here must be awesome, cause I was showering for like, five minutes. Works great for me! I plopped in the water with a sigh. There were so many bubbles, and they were thick too. That's why I love that bubble bath. Mondo bubbles when you use it.

Damon jumped up to the edge of the tub, tilting his head, looking at the bubbles intently. His nose was sniffing the air, and getting closer to a large lump of bubbles. When his nose collided with the bubbles, he pulled back, twitching his nose insanely, trying to get rid of the bubbles on his nose. He finally used a paw to swipe them away, though it took a few tries.

I wish I had a sphere recorder! All these moments of terrible cuteness, and no way to preserve them for others to see! I mean, who'd believe that a mega-cute, turquoise fox would have a close encounter with bubbles? No one! That's why I want to record it, so that people will believe me.

And talk about CUTE! Now he's batting at them! I think my face is going to crack from smiling.

"Ri? You alright in there? You keep squealing." Gippal said from around the door frame. That sneaking little...! And here I was, giving him compliments on how considerate he was being. We'll just see if he ever gets a hug again! Humph!

"Damon's being cute, and you're being rude! Spying on me in the tub!"

"Like I can see anything under those bubbles." He said, walking in, much to my charge in, and seating himself next to the tub. He had his back to me, which I guess was supposed to make up for him being in the bathroom with me. "And since when did you care if I saw you naked? I seem to remember you bouncing around naked in front of a mirror, so that I got great front AND back views."

"Hey! If you're going to complain about it, then I'll make sure never to do it again."

"I'm not complaining. But I'm jealous that you took off that sheet in front of the fox rather than me."

"You weren't here."

"I was dealing with Yuna downstairs. Some way to treat you, after what you went through. I told her she's not allowed to see you until you want to see her. Among other things."

"Sounds good to me. I don't want to see anyone, really. I'll hide out here with you and Damon, if you're okay with it."

"Stay as long as you want. They'll be happy to have me in one place for more than a day."

"Um...can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Well..." I sat up and laid my head on my arms on top of the tub, so that I could look at him. "How come you went after me?"

"Are you kidding? I'd have gone after you if that hole led straight to hell. As if I'd leave you there, or anywhere, alone."

"But why?" He was silent for a while, thinking I guess. I think he's thinking, at least. He looks like he's thinking. What's so hard about that question? It's not like we're in love or anything. Sure, I have this little crush on him, but I don't think he likes me that way anymore. We kinda had a romance going, but that all ended when Yunie left on her pilrimage and he left for the Crimson Squad. He's been all Big Brother since then.

"I'd miss you, that's why."

"You'd miss me? You barely talk to me anymore."

"Damn it, Ri, I don't have any one answer. I just know I'd miss you more than you think. And I don't talk to you cause you don't seem to want to have anything to do with me."

"What! You idiot! I miss talking to you, even if you **do **call me 'Cid's Girl' and mess up my hair all the time."

"Yep. So when are you gunna get naked again? You said you would."

"I'm naked right now, horn dog."

"You're wearing all those bubbles. I'd have to jump in there and push them all to the side to get a good view."

"Go right ahead."

Gippal turned to look at me then, and his face was classic shock. Jaw slightly hanging, eye wide open...yet another moment when I wish I had a sphere recorder. I'll have to make sure I carry one from now on.

"I need to go get my recorder. I have a naked, hot chic in my bathtub, and I'm not in there with her. Seems kinda wrong."

"I **told **you to go right a head, but you keep trying to be good for some reason." I leaned back in the tub again, closing my eyes. "I've always wanted to be up to my neck in hot water with you. And you and I never did get to finish that kiss."

"We should fix that."

"How bout right now? Come on in, the water's nice and hot!"

"Sounds like a plan to me. Though I can do without the bubbles." Now, keep in mind here that Gippal's clothing involves lots of buckles and stuff like that. Yet, they were off with a miminum of noise, and very very quickly. How long did it take him to learn how to do that? Does he sit there and pracitce in his spare time? Or are all those buckles just for decoration?

Not that I care, cause right now I'm being thoroughly kissed by Gippal, with both of us naked in a bathtub. And no, I'm not going to tell you what happened after that kiss! You smut happy people, wanting to know what goes on in my sex life. Geez. Ever hear of a thing called privacy? It's when you mind your own business! Go watch some porn if you want to think about people having sex. Smuts'R'Us is chock full of the stuff. Go have fun there.

I **will **tell you that snuggling in bed with Gippal is great. Again, he's really, really warm. And he's got good taste in sheets. These ones are all soft and comfy. He's got nice cushy pillows, too. Damon came in and decided to take one for himself. He looks so cute, laying there with his tails over his little nose. I'm really going to have to get a recorder one of these days. Gippal's cute when he sleeps, too. Not that I'm facing him, cause he's spooning me, but he really is. YAWN It'll be nice to sleep. Yeah...nice...zzz...ZZZ...zzz

**So, I'm working on the real ending to this. I'm not sure it'll be any time soon, so keep your ears and eyes open for updates! Thanks! **

**tagg**


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